<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Soft Currents by ArcticMatter_77</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29016393">Soft Currents</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcticMatter_77/pseuds/ArcticMatter_77'>ArcticMatter_77</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Legend of Zelda &amp; Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Amnesia, Angst, Empty House, F/M, Freeform, Loneliness, Memories, Reflection, Solitude, Story, because there is none, don't come in here looking for happiness</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 10:28:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,310</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29016393</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcticMatter_77/pseuds/ArcticMatter_77</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In one corner of Hyrule, there sits a solitary house.</p><p>The boy who owns it is rarely home.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Daruk &amp; Link &amp; Mipha &amp; Revali &amp; Urbosa &amp; Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Link/Mipha (Legend of Zelda), implied, past - Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Soft Currents</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>            In the east and to the south, there is a single house that sits just above Firly Pond. In the shadow of Ebon Mountain.</p><p>            It’s nice enough. Built of sturdy bricks and fine wood, the overall impression is that it belongs to a fairly well-off family. A couple, perhaps. But no. Only a boy lives there. He does not speak much.</p><p>            Outside, the stables are set for two horses, but it’s rare enough that even one can one be found there. Still, they are kept clean just in case; full of hay and horse feed. A long chimney winds high into the air above the building, looking almost like a lighthouse. But smoke almost never pours from it.</p><p>            Entering the house reveals a mostly sparse interior. Light is provided by several lanterns hung on a carved palette suspended from the ceiling. In the middle of the living area is a large, square table resting upon a rectangular white and blue rug that is always set with plates, mugs, and a vase full of flowers. The kitchenette sits opposite the door, stocked with supplies and utensils. Mounted on the walls are various weapons; perhaps trophies. Bows, swords, weapons of unknown value.</p><p>            A few stand out among the rest.</p><p>            A huge Goron hammer-sword, distinguished with a gold and blue hilt and the bronze-tinted symbols etched into the blade.</p><p>            A curved scimitar inlaid with jewels and gold. Beside it hangs a circular shield colored green, red, and gold and adorned with more jewels and strange, waving symbols.</p><p>            A blue, gold, and silver bow; curved and elegant.</p><p>            Over the fireplace that hasn’t been alight for some time, there is a long, silver and blue trident. It is spotless; not a speck of dust ever settles upon it.</p><p>            Beneath the stairs is a wardrobe, filled with outfits of varying make and quality. Well-worn pants and a shirt, warm doublets, climbing gear, Gerudo clothes, a set of flamebreaker armor, an old set of Hylian knight armor, a Sheikah uniform. Others.</p><p>            On the second floor, there is a perfectly-made bed, a nightstand, a desk with a chair, and a shelf full of books. Upon the nightstand rests a vase with a single, blue and white flower placed inside, along with an odd, gold, six-eyed helm with a ring of lightning around its rear. If one were to open the drawer of the nightstand, a strange, blue garb could be found. A mix of dyed leather, silver, and several scales, the garb fits the boy perfectly and, in many ways, resembles a Zora.</p><p>            Upon the desk, there are a few books, some knick-knacks, and a – possibly stolen – diary, opened to its last few filled-in pages; not even halfway through the book itself.</p><p>            There is also an exceptionally small portrait frame, though it does not contain a portrait in the traditional sense. Instead, it houses a still image. An image frozen in time and rendered absolutely true-to-life. In the image, there are six figures present. A huge Goron with a fluffy, white beard grins manically as he squishes the other figures together. A tall, imposing Gerudo woman leans into him, completely unfazed by the whole thing. A black and white feathered Rito with a light blue scarf tied around his neck squawks loudly, his wings outstretched as he was apparently thrown off-balance. A young girl in a blue dress with long, braided blonde hair looks concerned, shifting to avoid the falling Rito. Beside her, a blonde boy her age wearing a light blue tunic – the exact same boy that owns the house – looks surprised, his eyes wide and his shoulders raised so as to avoid bumping into one of the others. Finally, a short, red and white skinned Zora girl wearing a sash the same shade as the boy’s tunic and the Rito’s scarf is bent forward, her eyes wide and her mouth open in surprise as she’s flung into the boy’s chest.</p><p>            The image is a century old.</p><p>            As is the boy. As is the girl.</p><p>            All the others are dead.</p><p>            Shot down, torn apart, incinerated, gored. Dead.</p><p>            The house may belong to the boy, but he shares it with the ghosts. With the memories of those he lost. The very fragmented, confusing memories, at least. He doesn’t remember everything, but he remembers enough.</p><p>            When he wakes in the middle of the night, thinking about a large hand patting him on the back, a palm on his shoulder, a harsh voice in his ear, smooth fingers entwined with his own, he does not always remember why. He tries, but normally the memory that only moments ago was so clear recedes into the furthest crevasses of his brain; unreachable. He will sit awake, maybe staring out of the window, wondering just how many stretches of emptiness in his mind there are. Wondering why he feels so sad, so lost, so alone.</p><p>            He feels many things and does not always know why.</p><p>            He remembers a few things, and he sometimes feels emotions; powerful, all-consuming ones. Sometimes he remembers things and feels nothing at all.</p><p>            Memories of events and memories of feelings are two different things.</p><p>            It is both a curse and a blessing. A curse in that he cannot remember some of his closest friends. Who made him laugh, who made him yearn to prove himself, who gave him confidence, who he grew up with. Who he cared for. A blessing in that if he did in fact manage to recover all of his memories with their context, would he be able to carry on? Knowing that he couldn’t save them, knowing that they were all gone and they were never coming back.</p><p>            It is already hard enough for him to do that with what he <em>does</em> know.</p><p>            Despite having taken vengeance on the foul, monstrous creatures that ended the lives of those closest to him, there is only so much pleasure he can derive from that. What’s left of the land is saved. The Calamity has passed.</p><p>            The Ganons are dead. But so are his friends.</p><p>            Sometimes he wishes he could go back to not remembering. To not understanding the extreme depth of his losses and the hollowness that it has brought about within him.</p><p>            But that would not be right.</p><p>            That’s why the boy is rarely home. It’s full of mementos. They bring pain and memories and feelings. But he keeps them anyway because he cannot bear to let them go. They’re all he has left. So they sit there: clean, unbothered, solitary. But cared for. Treasured. Revered.</p><p>            Yet he stays away most of the time. He travels the lands. He seeks treasure. He kills monsters. He tells those he encounters that he is looking for adventure. For a way to help those in need and those displaced by the Calamity. He is really looking for himself. For a purpose. For something to fill the void that yawns wide within him, threatening to devour his heart, his mind, and his soul.</p><p>            Perhaps.</p><p>            Perhaps in another world, in another time, this is not all that remains.</p><p>            Perhaps the bow soars through the sky with its master, loosing arrows at impossible angles and still striking its targets.</p><p>            Perhaps the scimitar and shield rest on the back of a woman’s belt, and the helm is still kept in Gerudo Town; a symbol of the leadership there.</p><p>            Perhaps the hammer-sword is still strapped to the back of a huge Goron, used to break open rocks and the skulls of monsters alike.</p><p>            Perhaps the trident does not hang above the usually cold hearth but is clutched in the warm, gentle hands of a princess. Perhaps the diary – her diary – still hides away in a chest in her bedroom. Perhaps the boy does not own the strange armor he keeps in his nightstand, nor understand its significance.</p><p>            But that world is not this world.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Soft Currents - Alexandra Savior</p><p>Audio version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzY2sE3OC5E</p><p>Surprise, surprise: I am, in fact, extremely cultured.<br/>Maybe one day, I'll write a whole thing where I give it the War Bonds treatment and merge Age of Calamity and Breath of the Wild into one story.<br/>One day.</p><p>One day turned out to be today. Here's the link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29671170/chapters/72955824</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>